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romantically to point out that from this moment Charles conceived a hidden passion for the Princess who afterwards became his wife. On the contrary, the letter he wrote to his father describing what he had seen, scarcely mentions her and apparently his thoughts were all for his hoped-for Spanish bride. There danced the Queen and Madame/he wrote, 'amongst which the Queen is the handsomest which hath wrought in me a greater desire to see her sister3 (the
Infanta).1
At three o'clock next morning, February 23rd, they left Paris and after six days' hard riding reached Bayonne. Their fine riding coats had apparently attracted much attention upon the route, so at Bordeaux they deemed it expedient to equip themselves with five very ordinary coats all alike in colour and texture, which conveyed the impression that they were gentlemen of simple fortunes. By so doing they managed to evade the too ready hospitality of the Due d'Epernon.
They had now entered upon the season of Lent and could get no meat at the inns. So they indulged in a sporting interlude which delighted them. Near Bayonne they had chanced across a herd of goats and their young. Sir Richard Graham whispered to Buckingham that he would snatch one of the kids to provide meat for them, which chance remark being overheard by the Prince, he jestingly replied, cWhy, Richard, do you think you may practise here your old tricks again upon the borders?5 So they paid the goatherd well for one of the kids, and then had to essay the task of catching their purchase. How the Prince enjoyed the sight of the Marquis of Buckingham and his servant heatedly chasing the elusive kid on foot! Finally, with a fine aim, Charles put an end to their labours by killing the kid with a shot through the head from his Scottish pistol.
1 ELLIS, Original Letters, Series I, vol. ni, p. 121. 78